Electronic Arts is in some trouble with its Star Wars fan base.
"Star Wars Battlefront 2," officially comes out on Friday, but many players are already upset over the expensive in-game transactions necessary to unlock certain characters. Tamoor Hussain, editor at GameSpot and Russell Holly, managing editor of VRHeads.com joined Cheddar to discuss the concept of paying extra within a game.
Hussain says that it used to take a significant number of hours to gain points in order to unlock certain characters, which upset players. So, companies began to add the option to buy the power to unlock them. But people are still upset. He says it could impact sales this week, but many people won't be looking into the issue too deeply.
Holly says in-game transactions are a tremendous business for Electronic Arts, which just bought Respawn Entertainment for over $400 million.
To ease some of the pressure, EA said that it will reducing the amount of resources it'll take to access key players in the upcoming game.
"They kind of changed the discoursed around the game," Hussain said, adding that this move will sway public opinion positively.
Samsora shared his thoughts on his recent tournament placing, his new team, and his main character for life, Peach.
Bungie, the famed developer of Halo and Destiny, has parted ways with parent company Activision-Blizzard. The industry-shaking fracture follows several leadership changes at Activision over the last several months, causing investors and gamers alike to wonder how the split will affect the gaming industry.
Meditation app Headspace is zen about its future. Coming off a profitable year in 2018, with more than $100 million in revenue, CEO and co-founder Rich Pierson told Cheddar on Monday that the company is looking to continue its domination of the digital meditation space by pushing into healthcare and international markets.
The Call of Duty World League qualifiers are kicking off this week in Columbus, Ohio. Teams that placed 5th and below at CWL Las Vegas will battle it out for the remaining 12 spots in the 2019 CWL Pro League. G2 Esports pro Anthony "Methodz" Zinni joins Cheddar Sports to discuss the League and what it's like playing for his new team.
Weak economic data from China and the ongoing government shutdown appeared to drag down the major U.S. indexes on Monday morning. SpaceX is slashing its workforce by 10 percent in an effort to become "leaner." Plus, we sit down with Emmy-award winning actor and producer Yeardley Smith who is most famous for voicing the iconic cartoon character, Lisa Simpson.
Green Growth Brands has no plans to stop its takeover bid for Canadian marijuana producer Aphria. Just days after the marijuana-derived beauty and wellness company announced it will sell its products at select DSW shoe stores nationwide, Green Growth CEO Peter Horvath said the company is dead set on getting a foothold in the Canadian market ー because in cannabis, consolidation is the new rule.
From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, these are the top stories that moved markets and had investors, business leaders, and entrepreneurs talking this week on Cheddar.
Cheddar's Hope King looks back at her first trip to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Self-driving innovators need to earn the trust of drivers ー and that starts with transparency, said Jack Weast, chief systems architect for Autonomous Driving Solutions at Intel. "We feel the industry has a responsibility to be more open and transparent about how the technology works, especially when it comes to decision- making, which is really at the heart of what it means to drive safely," Weast told Cheddar's Tamara Warren from the floor of the CES convention in Las Vegas.
Even creative industries like advertising aren't exempt from advances in technology and automation. "Brand tech" firm You And Mr Jones took a majority stake in Inside Ideas Group, a company that helps brands form their own internal marketing groups.
